It's been more than a half century since Raymond Maffey attended the now-defunct Hartwell High School, but he finally received his diploma Monday.

        So did nine other World War II veterans who went into the service before completing high school.

        “It's quite an honor,” said Mr. Maffey, 76, of Colerain Township, in between mugging for pictures with his diploma at Cincinnati Public Schools' education center in Corryville.

        The veterans, who served between September 1940 and December 1946, never received their diplomas because they were called to military service before graduating from high school.

        Legislation passed this year by the Ohio General Assembly allows Cincinnati Public Schools and other districts around the state to grant the veterans high school diplomas.
       

Man dies after police stun him

               HAMILTON — A Forest Park man who struggled with police Monday morning and was stunned twice with a Taser died shortly afterward en route to the hospital.

        Marvin Hendrix, 27, reportedly went into cardiac arrest in an ambulance, Hamilton police said, and was pronounced dead at Fort Hamilton Hospital.

        Police said they don't think the two stuns caused his death, but they and the Butler County Coroner's Office are investigating.

        A life squad responded to a morning call that Mr. Hendrix was ill and nauseated. A struggle ensued, and Mr. Hendrix became violently combative with both paramedics and police, authorities said.

        A Hamilton police supervisor used a Taser to apply a two-second stun to Mr. Hendrix, without effect, police said. A second stun calmed him, and paramedics loaded him into an ambulance, where he went into cardiac arrest.

3 teens charged with vandalizing

               ANDERSON TOWNSHIP — Three teen-age girls have been charged with vandalizing a Christmas display at an Anderson Township residence.

        The juveniles, two age 15 and one age 17, were charged with criminal damaging, a misdemeanor, the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office said.

        During the early morning hours of Dec. 9, the juveniles allegedly vandalized a Christmas display in the front yard of the home of Larry Wilson on Maidmarian Court, the sheriff's office said.

First of seven cells full of uranium waste

               Cleanup workers at Fernald have filled and capped the first of seven waste disposal cells that will hold millions of cubic yards of contaminated scrap and soil.

        While much of the hottest waste from the former uranium processing plant has been hauled to the Nevada Test Site, the Fernald “On-Site Disposal Facility” is designed to hold up to 2.5 million cubic yards of waste.

        About 85 percent will be soil and 15 percent will be demolition debris.

        When complete, each of the 400-foot by 800-foot mounds will have its own liner system and a clay cap 8.75 feet thick. The first cell was filled with 314,000 cubic yards of waste. Cell 2 is 60 percent filled while Cell 3 is 25 percent filled.

        Work to fill all seven is expected to last through 2006.

Registry will track Ohio stroke victims

               The University of Cincinnati has received a $1 million grant to create a statewide stroke registry to study progress in treating brain attacks.

        The grant is one of four to be awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in honor of Sen. Paul Coverdell, a senator from Georgia who died of a stroke in July 2000. Others went to agencies in Georgia, Michigan and Massachusetts.

        In recent years, new medications have made it possible to reduce deaths and brain damage caused by stroke, but only if stroke victims receive prompt treatment. The new stroke registries will track differences in how stroke victims get treated.
       

Springfield police to buy nonlethal weapons
SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP — A $37,168 federal grant will allow the police department here to buy new equipment.
               A portion of the funds, Lt. Dave Schaefer said, will be used to equip officers with less than lethal means of force, such as pepper ball guns, Tasers and bean-bag shotguns.

        The department will also be buying load-bearing vests, distraction devices, six shotguns, 14 radar units, two digital cameras and entry tools, he said.

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